St Edmund's Church, Crickhowell

Book of Condolence and votive candles in St. Edmund’s following the death of HM Queen Elizabeth II.

Rev Sally Rees

Our Pastoral team of 15 participated in Care for the Family’s Bereavement Care Awareness training.  Every pastoral visitor has weekly visits.  We have retired nurses, doctors, and counsellors as part of the team.

During lockdown I wrote a reflection for the pastoral visitors every day – I wrote a series through Ruth on bereavement ‘Surviving Grief’ by Bible Reading Fellowship.

We have an annual reflective service for All Souls, and after this and our Christmas Star Service we provide refreshments and people do tend to stay – fellowship and conversations can be deeply meaningful.  Providing a space for people is important. The Bereavement Journey  face-to-face was completely different to online – people were much more open, so I will carry on with face-to-face.  People attended in small groups and have continued meeting and looking after one another, sharing their stories – partly because of the older age group that I work with.